Forum:Punished in Minetown
Hey folks! Due to a careless sacrifice (a wereperson; I forgot it was human=my race) in the middle of battle, I succeeded in getting my god angry at myself, the altar converted to chaotic, and I received the ball and chain as punishment. That was before I entered the Gnomish Mines. I still made it to Minetown and even managed to get a Master Mind Flayer as pet (but don't ask me how, it was just there suddenly). The altar was cross-aligned. I left some money there for 5 points of protection, then my MMF proceeded to suck the priest's brains out and hand me my money back. My problem, however, is that I still have the punishment. None of the cures in the wiki (Polymorphing into nymph/metallivore/amorphous... monster; wand of opening; bell of opening; drawbridge etc.) are available to me. Praying isn't an option, I think, since I already got Crom to curse my secondary weapon when I tried that. (I didn't mention that, but due to a stupid primary/secondary switch of mine I also ended up with the cursed short sword in hand. You see, I'm a newbie :-) My idea was to wait for more monsters in minetown and sacrifice them in the now empty temple. I already succeeded in converting the altar to Crom. But I suppose I need a lot more corpse to make him happy with me again, and with the ball-and-chain it is difficult to carry the corpses back in town. Of course, there are loads of pick-axes and mattocks lying around, but I can't dig straighter routes to the temple since the sword is welded to my hands. Oh, and I also have uncontrolled teleportitis. On the upside, I have a Master Mind Flayer, a large cat, a large dog, and several giant rats as pets. So I'm in no immediate danger until the food from the Minetown food store runs out. If any of you have suggestions for something that could help me, I would be very thankful! -- 00:45, August 19, 2010 (UTC) :The sword is the biggest problem. With a pet master mind flayer you won't need to worry about water demons, so try dipping it into a fountain. It'll rust, but that's ok because you just want to get rid of it. Once that's done you can use a pick axe to dig a pit, move a boulder next to it, drop your ball into the pit and push the boulder into the pit. That unchains you, and doesn't leave you tethered to the ground as you might think. Crom is currently angry at you, so don't bother praying until you can sacrifice something strong enough to mollify him (look for that key word when sacrificing. Weak monsters will do nothing to lower his anger. See altar). The teleportitis is your last big problem, and the only solution for that now is to find a ring of teleport control or eat a tengu corpse and get lucky. -- Qazmlpok 01:47, August 19, 2010 (UTC) ::Or you happen to meet a nymph who will take an interest in the sword or the ball - or eventually both. Just make sure to drop everything you'd like to keep on an Elbereth square before meeting her. 10:23, August 19, 2010 (UTC) :: ::Thanks a lot! When I get to play the next time, I will try out your suggestions! In between, I thought of something myself: I could find a magic trap and step on it repeatedly, hoping that eventually I will "feel someone helping me". That would uncurse my sword. But the fountain option is probably easier, since the only magic traps I know of are a few levels up. The teleportitis is not such a worry at the moment, at least when I'm free and not wielding a cursed weapon. I figured I'd find a tengu eventually, so I ate that nymph. The first tengu didn't leave a corpse, though. Just one thing: I have seen that the master mind flayer is quite potent, so I wouldn't like to have to face him as an enemy. Still I don't really know in which way he could lose his tameness (of course I keep him close to me or on my dungeon level, and I would also let him eat corpses, if the other pets let him). Is there some specific Bad Idea I should avoid in dealing with him? -- Jay 13:38, August 20, 2010 (UTC) (sorry, I can't seem to get the indent and the line break function to work correctly) :::I don't believe you can directly turn a pet hostile; reducing its tameness to zero will merely make it peaceful. But, if you leave it on a different level for so long that it would have starved, it will be hostile when you find it again; this can't happen with inediate pets, but mind flayers are unfortunately omnivores. A good idea in general would be to have telepathy so you don't inadvertently attack it while blinded (which will reduce tameness). :::One thing to watch out for with pets, though, is that they may attack you when confused or hallucinating. While black lights won't normally go for pets, they may if you are invisible, displaced, or causing conflict. Try to leave a unicorn horn around for your mind flayer to pick up - I think they will use them. Pets may also attack you if confused, most often (only?) from hunger; make sure to keep your mind flayer well-fed (though since it's eating things' brains, that shouldn't be a problem). :::As for using a magic trap to uncurse items, fountains are generally a better option, given the large numbers of monsters a magic trap will probably summon. You might also try price-ID'ing scrolls: If you find a base cost 80 scroll, it is either a scroll of enchant armor, which is at least useful to identify now, or a scroll of remove curse, which will always remove punishment and if not cursed, will uncurse your weapon as well. A base cost 60 scroll is enchant weapon, which will, if uncursed or blessed, will also uncurse your weapon. Generally the pit-and-boulder route is easier, I will admit. -Ion frigate 08:32, August 21, 2010 (UTC) :::Also, how did you get a master mind flayer as a pet, out of curiosity? Was it a lucky polytrap? Oh, and another hint for keeping it with you (and thus tame) is to get a magic whistle; just try out every whistle you find until you find one that makes a "strange whistling sound." Tin whistles are actually still useful though, as they make pets more inclined to follow you for a few turns. -Ion frigate 08:36, August 21, 2010 (UTC) ::::It must have been some shapeshifter that his pet ate. --Lukky513 15:45, August 21, 2010 (UTC) :::::"You feel charismatic!" on a magic trap might also work, right? Slandor 16:52, August 25, 2010 (UTC) :::have you tried to drop the ball in a pitt and push a bolder over it that is how i got ride of my punishment ::::(''Still no good at indenting and line breaking. The above sentence is not by me, but by an anonymous well-wisher.) ''About the master mind flayer: I have no idea how I ended up with him. I had arrived in minetown with some of my other pets, and suddenly I got the message "You feel a mental wave. It feels soothing." (or similar wording). Then I examined the screen for the source of the message, and I found that there was a previously unknown symbol - a master mind flayer, after I checked it out - with a "heart" for tameness. I don't think I lost one of my pets who transformed, though, but I'm not totally sure. Unfortunately I cannot tell you more about the game, since I have not been able to play on in the last weeks. But once I get my annoying thesis out of the way, I will get back to the more important things in life, i.e. Nethack :-) -- Jay 16:20, September 14, 2010 (UTC) :::::Most likely, you had a tame cat/dog who then stepped on a polytrap and turned into a master mind flayer. It's a great pet worth keeping around.Tjr 18:07, September 14, 2010 (UTC)